Transcript of the above video: 

I want to start this video by first saying I would like to CORRECT myself and in fact note to the producer, go ahead and put correction on the front end of this video all in caps. I do want to correct myself in a prior video, I at least implied that for the forthcoming period of time - well I didn't directly imply - I didn't say I had the answers on the DTV, but in a prior video I said, look it doesn't look like we have got any new rules regarding DTV extension in Thailand. It looks like we do now, so maybe the CORRECTION moniker is warranted, maybe not technically speaking, but I'd rather throw it up there and more people understand what is really going on, rather than sit around and have an ego war over whether or not I predicted some nuance of Thai Immigration completely accurately. 

So up to now, I have been waiting to see what the possibility of extension on the DTV would look like and I knew that we would have to wait for six months to see that. We are now starting to see the first people who got those visas starting to have to deal with the back end or the middle end if you want to look at it from that perspective, or the transitionary part of it, they are now having to start dealing with that because the initial 6 months is coming to an end. So where is that leaving us? And it's looking like while it is at least theoretically possible to deal with extending DTVs in-country, it does not look like that it's overly easy. I'll jump into this.

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com. "The basic point is that a local immigration extension will depend on continually updating documentation over the five years duration of the DTV. How will someone who started a cookery course in 2024 going to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he or she is still learning in say, 2027? In the medium term, it will become apparent that DTV is a five-year validity Tourist Visa requiring leaving Thailand at least twice a year - or once a year if local immigration can be persuaded to turn 180 days into 360." 

Okay, so what is he sort of talking about there? And let's be clear - tip of the hat to Mr. Kenyon down there at Pattaya Mail - this man is very, very aware of the sort of practicalities of how Immigration works in a practical sense. And what is being conveyed in that article and I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article for more information, but what he is basically saying there is, yes theoretically at least at this early period of time, it looks like it's going to be possible to extend these visas in-country, but as a practical matter it will be somewhat difficult to prove it up for extension purposes. So I expect for at least the interim period, those who are looking to try to extend in-country, are probably going to have to go through somebody who deals with immigration on a regular basis; new things are never easy in a bureaucracy. You oftentimes you want to deal with people who have dealt with stuff in the bureaucracy before. But set that aside, I also think there are tax policy implications to this that I will get into in another video. 

But that being said, the thing to take away from this one is yes, although there looks like an effective means or there is a theoretical means of extending in-country, it remains early - that keeps things a little bit difficult. Also again, I think immigration kind of had this thrust upon them and the general tone I'm getting is that as a practical matter, or the general tone I’m getting regarding the information I am reading is that as a practical matter, at least for the foreseeable future, Border Running is going to be a more effective means of maintaining long term lawful status here in Thailand, rather than extension of the DTV Visa.